


Oh, Grow up!

by User_needs_a_Username



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga, fullm
Genre: Abduction, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Big Brothers, Blind Character, Brotherhood, Brotherly Love, Brothers, Confusion, Cute Kids, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Escape, Family, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Humor, Hurt, Hurt/Comfort, Kidnapping, Parental Riza Hawkeye, Parenthood, Post-Promised Day, Protective Riza Hawkeye, Rescue, Sad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:34:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27636215
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/User_needs_a_Username/pseuds/User_needs_a_Username
Summary: This is a de-aged Ed and Roy story but I'm on mobile so I can't use that tag. And I wrote it with ATPD, who can be found on ff.net if you are interested in her works.Ed and Roy are turned into small children, and Ed soon finds himself with a second little brother. However, when they learn of their true ages, things get a lot more complicated, especially when they begin to remember their pasts. Parental/Nanny Riza and brotherly Ed/Al/Roy.
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Riza Hawkeye, Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric & Team Mustang, Alphonse Elric & Riza Hawkeye, Alphonse Elric & Roy Mustang, Edward Elric & Riza Hawkeye, Edward Elric & Riza Hawkeye & Roy Mustang, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang, Riza Hawkeye & Roy Mustang, Roy Mustang & Team Mustang
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	1. Chapter 1

“Please excuse me for not shaking your hand, Fullmetal,” Roy told his soon-to-be ex-subordinate when the boy came over to sit on the chair opposite him. At least, that’s what it sounded like, what with the chair scraping against the floor as Edward sat down.  
  
“I can’t exactly fault you for that, Colonel, what with the whole “stabbed through the hands with a pair of swords”-thing. Are you gonna tell me why you asked to talk with me in a private office, and thereby borrowed a small conference room by intimidating the staff?” Ed felt his stomach clench just slightly at the unseeing, slightly grey eyes of the man in front of him. There was something unnerving about having the Flame Colonel’s sharp and, although he wasn’t ever going to admit it out loud, intelligent eyes suddenly dull and “focused” on his left ear.  
  
Roy smiled slightly, halfway happy about Fullmetal’s wounded left arm and highly deteriorated right one. After all, the kid wasn’t powered up on anger, adrenaline, fury, the loss of his brother and the enemy behind it right in front of him while being spurred on to punch him, and last, but not least: being the embodiment of “pissed off”. Now, the boy shouldn’t be able to hit him so hard, also because Al wouldn’t like it. “I figured I should warn you. Doctor Knox came visiting yesterday together with Doctor Marcoh. The latter has a Philosopher’s Stone… I said yes.”  
  
There was a sharp intake of breath from the younger man. “He’s gonna fix your eyes? Then why have you waited for a day when you’ve already said yes?” Ed was confused and partially relieved. He wanted Mustang to become Führer. He had been feeling bad about the 520 cens that he had promised to pay him back. After all, he ought to return them, but doing so right now, would only serve as mocking the Colonel for losing his eyesight.  
  
“Because we don’t know when it will run out of power, and so I want Doctor Marcoh to heal Havoc up first.”  
  
“Basically, you’re a softie trying to act tough.”  
“Right back at you, Elric.” Then Roy sighed. “I’m surprised that you haven’t punched me yet, though.”  
  
“It’s Marcoh, your reason is pretty obvious. You’re gonna be discharged from the military if you stay blind. And so you’ve chosen to do this so that you can restore Ishbal, right?” Ed asked, leaning back in his seat as he crossed his arms over his chest.  
  
Roy smiled slightly and nodded once. “Yes, that pretty much sums it up.” He was happy about the unexpected degree of support from the ex-alchemist. After all, Roy wanted his money back.  
  
Ed sighed, deciding on telling him the truth of it because he felt that it could serve as some sort of parting gift for the Colonel’s help. After all, he did actually owe the man for recruiting him and saving the country and basically not lying dead back in Resembool because his soul was being powered by his megalomaniac homunculus kinda-half-brother. “I guess that means it’s the same one that Kimblee dropped in Baschool that Heinkel and Darius picked up… The same one that Al used to fight Pride and Kimblee with back in Kanama.”  
  
Roy’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. “Al used a Stone?”  
  
“Yeah… And I used Envy’s to escape Gluttony’s stomach when he swallowed us… Made the future Emperor of Xing eat my shoe in there… Anyways, I’m not gonna punch you because without that Stone, I’d be dead.”  
  
Roy’s mind was trying to process all of the information. “What do you mean, “dead?” Why is that?”  
  
“Because Pride hurt Heinkel and Marcoh then used the Stone to heal him up so that he could help fight them, meaning that Heinkel killed Kimblee, but not before Pride could eat him and take him into his own body… If that hadn’t happened, then I’d probably have been the new Pride, ‘cos that little brat tried to possess me. But Kimblee ended up distracting him long enough by saying stuff about how Pride was defying his pride by fleeing inside a measly human… So then I could rip out those freaky dagger-tentacle-thingies that Pride had shoved into my cheeks. That’s how I managed to pull out the original and innocent homunculus, because I temporarily made myself into a Philosopher’s Stone so that I could force myself inside and grab it.”  
  
Roy paused. The thought of a homunculus Edward Elric was frankly terrifying. After all, he wasn’t entirely keen on setting the kid on fire. “That’s quite the story… So how’s Al and your arm?”  
  
“Atrophied and weird. Al’s getting pretty emotional… He’s been without his body for five years and now he’s not just able to feel again, but he’s been thrown into puberty.”  
  
Roy couldn’t help but chuckle. “Good luck with that.”  
  
“Yeah… We’re gonna be stuck here in the hospital for a while while Al recovers and—“  
  
Which was when the bomb went off and they were both slammed against the wall and into unconsciousness.

  
  


\---

  
  


Ed was terrified. It was cold and dark and the bad people hadn’t told him anything about why he was here. He had an old, woollen blanket draped around his shoulders over something that seemed like a baggy black dress. He didn’t know where Al was. Or Winry or Granny or Uncle and Auntie Rockbell. All he knew was that there was a small lightbulb in the ceiling and that he was allowed to pee in the bucket in the corner. He didn’t like this place. And he wasn’t even sure how long he’d been here. Only that he was scared and cold and lonely and wanted to go home.  
  
Then he heard footsteps approaching and he hid himself under the blanket, hoping to be left alone by the bad people. He heard whistling and crying.  
  
_Are there others like me?_  
  
Ed heard one of the bad people from before talking loudly. His voice was bassy and like he had smoked a lot his entire life. He was the scariest one.  
  
“Hey, shut up, we’ve brought you to another one so that you can make a friend. Besides, someone needs to look after you, otherwise you’ll probably drown yourself when you pee, you blind, little idiot.”  
  
"P-please! I wanna be s-safe! Don' wanna go to a new place! M'scared!"  
  
“Just shut up for once, would you? You should be happy, your new room-mate’s always talking about his little brother, he’ll know what to do with you.”’  
  
"He's safe? Won' hurt me… I don' wanna be hurt anymore."  
  
“Yeah. He’s an annoying brat just like yourself… You’re both so whiny, maybe you’ll get a bit less on our nerves once you can have someone else to talk to while we figure out how to go from here.”  
  
"So I won' be lon- lone- loney?"  
  
“No. Now go be annoying together.”  
  
There was the sound of the door being unlocked, then a yell and a thump and then a series of loud sobs. Ed lifted the blanket and saw a little boy with grey, dull eyes, curled up on the floor, dressed in a light blue dress similar to Ed’s. He looked up at the bad man who only scoffed and left. Ed instantly crawled over and put his hand on the little boy’s shoulder. “H—hello? What’s your name? S’okay, I’m gonna keep you safe.”  
  
Roy sniffed, turning his head towards the voice. "R-Roy… Can I-I have a hug? M'scared. I wanna feel you."  
  
Ed immediately reached out and pulled the little boy on his lap, hugging him tightly. “Of course… I’m Edward Elric, or Ed. So I’m gonna keep you really warm, Roy, ‘cos I’m a big brother and Al wouldn’t like it if I didn’t help you.” He was still very scared himself, but if he was right, then Roy wasn’t just even smaller than Al, but he was blind and that would make all of this even scarier. So Ed was gonna look after him. The bad people might even get angry with him if he didn’t do what they wanted.  
  
Roy reached up and felt Ed's face, making sure that he was nice like he sounded. "Y-you're scared like me?" He flinched away in fear and pulled his hand to his chest to protect it as if he thought asking might get him punched in some way.  
  
Ed looked at him in confusion. “You don’t hafta be scared of me… Granny made a leg for a blind man and he wasn’t wrong just ‘cos he had to see with his hand.” Ed hugged him tighter again, taking Roy’s hand in his, placing it on his own cheek. “S’okay, Roy…” Another reason that he was hugging Roy was that he wanted someone warm and friendly in this place. He needed to find something to talk about, because he wanted to get back home, and if Roy knew how they got here, then that was important. “D’you know why we’re here?”  
  
"N-no. I don' know. The bad man says M'a idi- idiot an' I don' know anythin'." Roy moved his hand across Ed's cheek, feeling every inch of his face that was within reach of his own hand.  
  
Ed smiled sadly at the little guy, and hugged him, stroking his hair like Mom used to do with Ed when he was scared. “So how old are you? I’m six.”  
  
Roy carefully put four of his fingers in front of Ed's eyes, forgetting how close his hand was to Ed's face. "M'four."  
  
Ed looked at the fingers slightly cross-eyed, but he was gonna be nice. Roy seemed like he wasn’t used to being blind, and suddenly he got a very big lump in his stomach. “Did they make you blind? The bad people?” Ed knew that they did bad things, because they had taken his leg, but it didn’t hurt for some reason. “‘Cos they stole my leg.” He didn’t like it at all. And if these bad people had stolen his legs and made Roy blind, then they seemed to be hurting them so that they couldn’t escape. “And I think they stole my alchemy too…”  
  
"They stole your leg? An' your alchemy?" Roy moved to feel Ed's legs. "Are the bad people like the scary white-thing in the white-place? Are they white-things too?"  
  
Ed froze. “You had the white-place nightmare too? ...Were you… Were you older in there?”  
  
Roy nodded slowly, terrified by what this might mean. "An' the big doors that the black hand-things came out of. Did they get us like that? Did the black-things get you an' bring you here? An' all the stuff it stuffed in your head?"  
  
Ed felt his stomach-lump grow even more. “Don’t know… But they stuffed my head… So can you do alchemy? ‘Cos if the white-thing didn’t steal yours, then we could escape!”  
  
"So y-you really, really can't do it?" Roy was frowning now. "I-I don' know what stuff is made of 'cos I can't…" he trailed off as his throat grew tight. "So I-I don' know if I can." He sniffed and fought back tears, before he started again, "An’ I don' wanna make the bad people mad 'cos they're scary. They'll hurt us an' I don't want them to hurt you 'cos you're nice."  
  
Ed looked down at the little boy, and made up his mind. “Roy, they wanna hurt us… We can’t get outta here if we stay… You’re our secret weapon… So if you can still do your alchemy, then we can get outta here before they can hurt us. Don’t you think that that’s better? If they do get angry, then I’m gonna say it was all me, ‘cos I’m the oldest. I’m the one who first transmuted when I was five… So we get outta here and we’ll find people to help us. The bad people will get arrested and we can be safe and we can find somewhere to hide… So I want you to try your alchemy, and I’ll make the transmutation circle for you, ‘kay?” Ed was scared, but they had to get free. They couldn’t stay here because if the bad people stole legs and sight, then Ed was scared of losing anything else.  
  
"O-okay, b-but I don' think I n-need the circle. An' I don' want them to hurt you 'cos you're nice." Roy frowned and hugged Ed tightly again, burying his face into him. "So you can't let them hurt you, 'kay? I won' let them."  
  
Ed nodded, then remembered about Roy’s blindness, and felt bad. “Deal, but you’re not allowed to get hurt either, ‘kay?”  
  
Roy nodded into Ed's chest. "'Kay… I won' let them hurt us, so can we leave now?"  
  
Ed took a deep breath, looking about, trying to make a plan. Because if they were discovered, then they would be easy to catch. And so he looked up at the small ventilation shaft, and got an idea because they were so deep underground. “Roy, you hafta do two things… I want you to make a ladder up to the shaft, and you hafta transmute us a slide down through the floor… If we’re lucky, we should get to the sewers… We could fool them into looking for us somewhere else than where we went. So I’m gonna let go of you now, and tell you where to go, ‘cos I can’t walk… ‘Kay?” Ed was nervous. They had to be quick, really, really quick.  
  
"'Kay," Roy whispered, before letting go. "Wh- where's the shaft? How far away is it?" Roy trembled in fear. Not knowing where anything was frightened him, and there was no one dragging him along this time, keeping him from walking straight into a wall.  
  
Ed gently put Roy down on the floor, before turning him around slightly. “You hafta crawl straight forwards from here, and be careful. Take it slow, and once you reach the wall, you make a ladder in the stone that goes two metres into the air, ‘kay?”  
  
Roy dropped onto his hands and knees and started crawling forward slowly. He kept lifting his hand to make sure the wall was not directly in front of him, and kept moving forward, before his hand finally met the wall. "Where's the shaft? Is it ab-above me?"  
  
“Yes. It’s made of concrete… So make it about thirty centimetres wide and two metres tall.”  
  
"'Kay." Roy sat back on his knees, carefully clapping his hands as he thought back to the key components of the material he was about to transmute, and pressed his hands against the wall. He thought through the things that he had learnt from when the black hands pulled him into the stone gate, jumping back a bit as the material under his fingers shifted and reformed into the ladder he had intended for it to become. "I-is it good?"  
  
Ed lit up. It was working. They could actually get out. “That’s perfect! Now I want you to turn around and clap your hands again. You need to make a hole that is about a metre deep at first so that we can cover it up, and then we’ll go downwards… I… I think you should make a hand that can lower us like a lift so that we won’t fall and get hurt.” Ed was nervous, really, really nervous. But they had to get out.  
  
Roy froze and turned his head down. "Wh-what if I mess it up an' I hurt you? I don' wan’ that to happen."  
  
“You make the hole while I do the thing that’ll make them get it really wrong… So I’m gonna drag myself over to you and climb up the ladder and remove the grate in front of the shaft.” He began dragging himself in the direction of the ladder before he began awkwardly climbing it. It was hard, but he managed it by putting his stump on the rung above his right leg so that he could push himself high enough to reach the next rung with his hands. It was scary, and he was happy that Roy was doing as he was told so that he didn’t hear how hard Ed had to work. The grate was loose and rusty, and so he began pulling it off, feeling panicky as it fell with a loud clang. He got down the ladder as quickly as possible and dragged himself into the hole, before holding up his hands. “Roy, you hafta fall into the hole, but I’ll catch you ‘cos I’m really good at being a big brother that way.”  
  
Roy hesitated, shaking his head, simply out of fear and the instinct he had to protect himself. "But what… I don' wanna fall. What if you don't catch me? M'scared." He pulled away from the hole slightly, biting his lower lip. "Do y-you promise you won' let me fall?"  
  
Ed reached up his hands even more, looking at the boy with determination. Ed was scared, but Roy was terrified, so Ed had to not be scared himself. “I promise. You’re gonna fall on me anyways, so it’s a soft landing no matter what. So I’m not gonna let you get hurt.”  
  
"'Kay." Roy sucked in a deep breath and came back to the edge of the hole, allowing for his body to fall into the empty space. He screamed, unable to hold it back as he fell down onto Ed. He gasped for breath, squeezing Ed tightly when he was sure that he was safe. "Th-thank you…"  
  
Ed held him tight, and then turned him around to face the side of the hole. “Now I need you to close it up for me so that they won’t find us, okay?”  
  
Roy released his hold on Ed and clapped his hands again, placing them on the side of the hole. He frowned when he couldn't tell if there was any change. "I-it's all dark… Did it work?"  
  
“Yes. So now I’m gonna shift you so that you’re sitting between my legs, and then you’re gonna make a lift by transmuting it until I say stop, ‘kay?” Ed was nervous about this part. But it just made sense and he didn’t even know why. But they had to get out of here, and once they were, then he’d have Roy transmute him a crutch and they’d be out and safe. “‘Cos it’s gonna be fine because I’ve got a little brother waiting for me,” he told him, making his voice sound a lot braver than he felt, as he gently placed Roy at the bottom of the hole, holding his hands under his armpits to hold onto him. And also because he was scared and it was completely black around him.  
  
Roy nodded, not thinking about how dark it was for Ed too. He paused before clapping his hands. "Can I be your little brother too? I don' wanna be alone."  
  
Ed smiled slightly, despite how scared he was. “Sounds really great! Al’s gonna love having a little brother too!” He felt a bit of a lump in his stomach again. Because that could mean that Roy didn’t have a family. Well, Uncle and Auntie Rockbell were really nice and would say yes. They always loved helping people.  
  
"Thank you, Big Brother," Roy said with a smile, clapping his hands to transmute the floor beneath them into a lift that lowered them down slowly.  
  
Ed felt weird and scared, trapped inside the moving and expanding tunnel, alchemic lightning all around them. And then came the sewers, and Ed let out a triumphant laugh. “We’re in the sewers, just seven more seconds, and we’re done, Little Bro!” Relief was flooding him. They were out. They would be saved now.  
  
His stomach rumbled loudly.  
  
...And they would get food.  
  
Roy nodded weakly, counting down the seconds before he stopped the transmutation. "Are we s-safe now, Big Bro? They can't get us, right?"  
  
Ed looked about him, but suddenly saw their big, big problem now that the transmutic reaction was completed. “We’re in the sewers, so that’s good, but now we have a new problem… It’s all dark down here… I… I think we hafta spend some time here...We should start moving.” Then he realised that if the bad people came back, then they would know what had happened. And so he guided his little little brother through how to make a pillar to get back up to the roof to transmute the hand so that the tunnel would be back to normal. Then they went back down and they were left in the complete darkness. “Now we hafta get going… D’you think you could transmute me a crutch?”  
  
"Oh, I didn't think about that," Roy whispered. He first felt along Ed's side to measure the size of the crutch that Ed would need, then clapped his hands, forming a crutch that would fit its purpose perfectly.  
  
Ed picked up the item, moving to get to his foot, just before he froze. “Roy, do you hear that? That… That sounds like a dog barking!! But there shouldn’t be one down here and what if it’s the bad people who are coming to get us?!” He heard the bounding footsteps coming closer, and he scooped Roy into his arms, before lying down over him, shielding him. “S’gonna be okay, Roy… Big Brother Ed’s gonna protect you.” Ed felt frightened tears running down his cheeks, imagining claws tearing into his back and ripping him apart. “S’gonna be oka-AAAAAAAGH!!! GET AWAY!!!!” He was suddenly flattened by the dog that was thankfully smaller than he had thought. It was barking triumphantly, and Ed was scared because now they couldn’t move at all.  
  
Roy shrieked. "NO!! DON' EAT US!!! PLEASE DON' EAT US!!!" He shook in terror and sobbed. "D-don't e-eat us! We're s-supposed to b-be safe! Don' e-eat us…" He trailed off in tears, hugging Ed tightly from where he was underneath him.  
  
There were footsteps approaching quickly and Ed began screaming. “PLEASE DON’T TAKE US BACK THERE! WE’RE HUNGRY!!!!”  
  
Roy continued to tremble under Ed. "I don' wanna go back." He closed his hands around the dress that covered Ed’s chest above him. "Big B-Brother… Please don' let them take us back…"  
  
Ed couldn’t help but open his eyes, tears streaming, as he was suddenly lit up by a flashlight. “Please d-don’t hurt us… We’ll be good… We won’t… We won’t do it again, I swear!!!”  
  
There was a shocked gasp. "Edward? Is that you?" Disbelief was clear in the feminine voice that spoke above them.  
  
Ed looked over at the source. None of the bad people had been women, and she sounded scared and kind. Like she cared about him. And so a thought struck him. “Are you military? Have you come to save me ‘cos Granny told them that I had gone missing?” He was really, really hoping that that was what was going on.  
  
"Yes, I'm here to save you," the woman whispered as she knelt down next to Ed. "Do you know who I am, Edward?"  
  
Ed shook his head, tears streaming, still shielding Roy in case the woman was trying to trick them and take them back to the bad people. “Why… Why do you ask? Are you from Resembool? And can you get the dog off? The claws are hurting me.” He hoped that she would prove that she was nice by getting the dog off of them. But he couldn’t be sure. All he was sure of was that he had to protect his little little brother.  
  
"Hayate, off!" she ordered and the dog leapt off of Ed within a second. "And, no, I'm not from Resembool. I was just wondering if you recognised me. We've met before."  
  
Ed looked at the stranger, noticing that her eyes were kind and she seemed hurt and scared. “I can’t remember that… Sorry…” His lips began trembling as he saw that she was wearing a uniform. “So you’re gonna save us?”  
  
She nodded, smiling encouragingly. "That's just fine. You don't have to be sorry about that. And, yes, I'm here to save you. You can call me Riza if you want, okay?"  
  
Ed looked at her, barely keeping himself from sobbing. “We need you to help us, though… They stole my leg and Roy’s sight. He needs to be guided, but I can’t walk without crutches.”  
  
Riza nodded. "Edward, did Roy go up ahead of you? Is he finding you both a way out of here?" Her voice gave away how desperately she wanted Ed to say yes to her questions. "He would have needed to go alone because he couldn't carry you and feel his way through the tunnels at the same time. Is that what he did?" She looked into Ed's face with an expression on her face that was nearly as desperate as her voice.  
  
Ed looked back at her in tearful confusion. “I’m… I’m sorry… I think they must have taken two Roys then, ‘cos you must know a different one…”  
  
Riza shook her head. The desperation turned to sorrow that was quickly masked. "I don't think so. I was just hoping that we would get lucky… But, Edward, where is Roy?"  
  
“He… I-I’m shielding him…” Ed suddenly froze as Roy began muttering quietly underneath him.  
  
Roy poked his head out from underneath Ed, trying to confirm what his head was telling him. "L-lieutenant Hawkeye? I-is that you?"  
  
Riza froze with a loud gasp, paling completely. The voice was so wrong. So insecure and childlike. “Colonel?” she asked in horror.  
  
"I-I don' know… My head… I know you, but I… M'scared… I don' know what's goin' on. W-will you help us, L-lieutenant? I wanna be s-safe now…" Tears filled his eyes and spilled over. He was desperately trying to remember how he knew her.  
  
Riza looked down at them in shock. “Sir… How old are you?”  
  
"I-I'm four…" Roy whispered, slipping back under Ed, a bit more afraid of how Hawkeye might react.  
  
Riza reached down, wanting to comfort the crying child, but it also didn’t feel right, and so she stopped herself. They needed to get them back to normal, and this was still her boss, wasn’t it? And she also knew that once he got back to normal, he’d be teasing her about it endlessly for having held him or stroked his back like she partially felt she should because it was a child. “Colonel… You and Ed were kidnapped four days ago… You’re a thirty-year-old soldier.”  
  
Roy shook his head. "No… M'four. The bad people took me an' I…" He trailed off, sobbing loudly at every confusing and messed up thing that had happened. "I don' wanna be confused anymore!"  
  
“You two need to come with me… There’s a special doctor who is going to fix your eyes so that you can see again. It will be fine, we’ll figure this out, okay?” she asked kindly, keeping up her brave voice and face. Doctor Marcoh had already healed Havoc’s severed nerves because they had all agreed that their boss would be pissed off if they had put it off just because he went missing.  
  
"S- so you can make my eyes better? It won' be d- dark anymore?" Roy asked, needing the extra confirmation. "I-I'll be able to see… I won' be a-a b-blind id-idiot…"  
  
“You’re not an idiot, sir. Now I’m going to carry Ed under my arm while you walk next to us, holding Ed’s hand, okay?”  
  
Roy nodded. "'Kay. I can do that. Big Brother, is that okay?" He asked, wiping tears out of his eyes.  
  
Riza paused. If the Colonel and Edward were going to remember both their past and present, then this was going to be very, very awkward. And Al would most likely be infatuated by the currently highly endearing, little Roy Mustang. She knew it was evil and that she shouldn’t even think of it… But she would need a camera and then she’d have an excellent way to make him stop his procrastination once he was back to normal.  
  
Ed nodded automatically. “Yes, of course! I’m gonna protect my little little brother!”  
  
Roy smiled, sliding all the way out from under Ed and hugged his big brother. "An' I'm gonna protect you too."  
  
“Good! Then that’s equivalent exchange!” And so he felt Riza lift him under his chest, still letting him hold Roy’s hand as his little little brother got to his feet. “So, Riza, how old am I? Am I like his big brother? Am I like forty?”  
  
Riza paused, hoping that revealing the truth about Ed's age wouldn't ruin the sweet relationship between the two boys. "No, you're actually sixteen. But you can still be Roy's big brother. I doubt he wants you to stop," Riza replied softly.  
  
Roy froze a bit. "So I'm like your big brother an' your little brother too. That's fun 'cos I like being a little brother." Roy frowned, realising that him being older might make Ed uncomfortable. "Can I still be your little little brother if I'm old?"  
  
Ed paused. “...But that… That means that my little brother’s my big brother and Al’s—“ He gasped, a picture in his mind that sent shivers down his spine. “WHERE’S AL?!! HE’S IN THE WHITE-PLACE!!! HE NEEDS MY HELP!!! HE’S SO SKINNY AND SAD!!!!” He began sobbing in fear.  
  
Riza stopped. "Edward, your brother's safe. He's not at the gate any more. You brought him out of there and gave up your alchemy for him." She hoped that that would help Ed calm down a little after remembering something like that. "He's at a safe place with lots of doctors and nurses so that he can get well again."  
  
Ed let out a breath of relief. “...Oh… Okay. Th-thank you… So… So the bad people didn’t steal my alchemy? But the white-thing stole my leg and Roy’s sight so that we could clap to transmute, but ‘cos I gave it up, I can’t do it?” He held Roy’s hand tighter, before pausing, looking up. “Riza? The bad people are far up there. We used Roy’s alchemy to get out. We don’t know where they are, though… But you need to call some military people to get the bad people and arrest them.”  
  
"Don't worry. I'll call some of my most trusted military friends and they will arrest all the bad people so that they can't hurt either of you or anyone else ever again, okay?" Riza tried to smile and show that everything would be fine, but that was harder than she could have imagined.  
  
“Why d’you know me anyways? If I’m just sixteen and Roy’s a colonel, then why do I know him? There aren’t any colonels out in Resembool…”  
  
"Yes, well, we came to Resembool to enlist a State Alchemist five years ago. We were surprised when we found two children with State Alchemist level skills. The then Lieutenant Colonel Mustang decided that it was worth checking out you and Alphonse, mostly out of curiosity… The rest is a story for later, but you became the youngest State Alchemist ever," Riza explained, choosing not to go into too much detail about anything else at the moment.  
  
Ed paused, before squeezing Roy’s hand a bit in his own for encouragement. He didn’t really know what to think or do about it all. Because he had just made his twice-as-old-as-himself boss into his little little brother and they didn’t even know what their lives were supposed to be like. All he knew was that Roy was small and Ed was big and had promised to look after him, and so that’s what he would do. “Riza? Is it far? I wanna find Al, he must be really, really scared.”  
  
"No, it's not far from here. We'll be out soon, Edward, and your brother will be very happy to see you." Riza led the boys along with Black Hayate keeping a close eye on Roy, probably noticing that he was having trouble as he stumbled about, Hayate gently nudging him continuously to help him keep his balance.  
  
Ed looked between Roy and Riza and felt his stomach clench. Because he could tell that something was very, very wrong.  
  
...And he had a bad feeling that it had something to do with the way she hadn’t said anything about how to get them back to normal.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two 

Jean sighed, desperately needing a smoke.

...But that was also definitely out of the question, seeing as how a sedated and extremely skinny Alphonse Elric was lying in the bed to his left. They had sedated him because he was far too ill to miss out on his sleep, although with his condition, they hadn’t actually needed to give him more than half a little melatonin pill to knock him out for eight hours.

And Jean was worried. Physical therapy was a great form of distraction right now, but it was exhausting and then some, and they still hadn’t heard anything about Ed and the Boss. They could be dead for all he knew, which in turn made him even more dead set on getting back on his feet. It made a lump form in his stomach, though.

...Because it felt like he was thereby honouring his boss’ final wish. As if he was dead. And so he sighed again, looking over at the couch in the corner of the office-turned-infirmary, where Doctor Marcoh was currently sleeping. The old alchemist had insisted on staying there so as to fix the Colonel’s eyes as soon as he came back.

When he heard the knock on the door, he figured that it would be another nurse with a glass of water.

...And then he froze as he saw the three people that were arriving instead. “N-no…”

Roy squeezed Ed's hand and turned to where the voice came from. "L-Lieutenant… Are you… Are you Lieutenant Havoc? Y-your voice… It's you, right?"

Riza stood behind the two boys, giving Jean a look that told him to be careful with what he said. She didn't want to upset the boys and hearing certain things about their past would only make things worse.

Jean just stared, but then cleared his throat and tried to keep his tone and words child-friendly. “Uh, yeah… I’m Jean Havoc, it’s nice to meet you guys…”

Ed looked up at him, frowning. “D’you people have a bird-thing?”

Jean furrowed his brows and gave Ed a strange look, curiosity getting the best of him. "A bird-thing? What are you talking about?"

“Your hair. Riza’s got this bird tail at the back of her head, and your fringe is like a nest… And Roy’s a bit like a smashed egg…” Then he patted Roy’s head with his free hand. “But your hair’s cool, don’t worry, Little Bro…”

Roy smiled to Ed. "Thank you, Big Bro… I don't know what your hair looks like, though." His smile fell and he felt tears fill his eyes. "I wanna see you, Big Brother!" He squeezed Ed's hand tighter, trying to find some sort of comfort in it. He was crying now and reached up to wipe away his tears, leaning into Ed.

Riza looked down at them, smiling encouragingly. “Okay, boys, I’m going to put you on the bed with Al there, and then I’m going to go out into the corridor outside with the doctor who can fix your eyes, sir. So here we go!” She crouched down and lifted her boss under her free arm, and then awkwardly walked over to Al’s bed and placed both boys on it. Then she rubbed their heads, smiling at them as bravely as she could. Then she poked the Colonel in the chest. “And you, sir, will get your sight back within minutes so that you can get to see Big Brother Ed, okay?” She was trying a bit harder to cheer the youngest boy up, mostly because he was crying and she wasn’t exactly in the mood of having him lose trust in her. He had been highly sceptical about guns and soldiers once they entered the building, and earning his trust before he remembered the sniper part was probably a good idea. Once he got back his memories, he was otherwise probably going to be a bit hurt that Riza hadn’t taken his age into consideration. Because they didn’t know how to change them back, and if he regained his memories, but still had the emotional range of a four-year-old, he’d probably feel like his assistant didn’t like him any more and throw a tantrum.

Roy lit up, turning so that he would face Ed. "I'm gonna see you, Big Brother!" He turned back towards Riza and smiled. "An' he's a really good doctor? Can he fix Big Brother's leg?!" He waited patiently for her answer, bouncing slightly in his excitement.

Riza sighed. “I’m sorry, you two, but Doctor Marcoh can’t give Ed his leg back… You see, he’s a medical alchemist, so he’s still bound by the laws of alchemy… Your eyes are still there, sir, and can therefore be fixed. Ed’s leg is gone, and you can’t fix something that isn’t there…” Riza had decided that that was the best way to tell them. Otherwise they would both be too smart once they realised that alchemy was involved. She couldn’t exactly let them know about the ingredients for the Philosopher’s Stone, not when they were so young. And Ed had made it clear on the Promised Day that Al and him had decided not to get their bodies back through a Stone. And there was that last part concerning the chance of a rebound. Ed could get half a leg back and then major blood loss due to a rebound midway and that was just too risky. She didn’t want him to be in pain, and that could far too easily happen. And so this way they would both be safe and both be clueless about the true nature of the Stone.

Roy's face fell. His excitement drained away to nothing. "So… We can't fix Big Brother's leg…" His eyes began watering and he sniffed. "I'm sorry… I-I shouldn't have asked 'cos now it's not happy."

Ed shook his head and hugged him tightly. “S’okay, Roy, s’nothing to worry about… I thought it was like that anyways… You can’t just make limbs appear…” He looked over at Al’s sleeping form. “Why’s he sleeping?”

"He's very weak and ill, so he needs to rest so that he can get better again," Riza answered. "But you shouldn't worry because he will be just fine, okay?"

Ed nodded. “‘Kay.” He looked towards Havoc, waving a bit. “I’m six. Roy’s four… And we’re gonna start remembering piece by piece, so I’ll know who you are too soon!”

Jean smiled at him. "That's great, Ed…" He lost a bit of the smile, somehow maintaining a slight tilt of his lips even so. "So you know what happened to both of you? Do you know who did it?"

Ed shook his head. “Only saw the bad people a bit. I woke up in the cell in this black dress,” he told him, nodding towards his own clothes. “They gave me a blanket and a bucket to pee in… Think I woke up ‘bout three days ago… Was all alone and the bad man with the cigar told me to be quiet or he’d cut off my right arm too… ‘Parently they were busy with “the big one”, and something about him being more difficult ‘cos of a lot more age… Musta been Roy…” He rubbed away a tear. “It was really scary there! They said they were just keeping me there ‘cos they needed to find out what to use me for! Like they’d done what they needed and…” His eyes widened as a memory came back to him. “I-I was sitting in a chair… All big… And they… They wanted to try it out so that they’d get it right with… with Mustang! They wanted to stop him… To get him fired from the military for good!” Then he paled, gasping. “They were gonna shoot the alchemists that did it once they were done! So that they couldn’t fix us!!” He began sobbing, hugging Roy tightly to him.

Roy just sobbed into Ed, hugging him back. "I-it was r-really scary. I-I don' ever w-wanna go b-b-back." He buried his face into Ed's small chest. He shook in horror, not able to stand the thought of any of that stuff happening. It was too much. It was terrifying. "I jus’ wanna be s-safe now… 'Cos it's scary."

Riza nodded at the two children. “Well, sir, then you won’t have to be scared in the dark any more once I’ve woken up and talked to the doctor, so you just wait for a couple of minutes.” Riza received a small nod from Ed, who hugged his new brother tighter to him, before she went over to the couch. She gently shook Doctor Marcoh’s shoulder. “Doctor Marcoh? It’s Lieutenant Hawkeye.”

Tim stirred a bit, looking up at Hawkeye. "Lieutenant Hawkeye?" he grunted out, still slightly confused from sleep. "What are you doing here? What happened?" He sat up with a little groan. "Did something happen while you were out?"

Riza whispered in a low voice. “Ed and the Colonel have been turned into small children… I need you to give my boss his sight back because he’s terrified and four, Doctor Marcoh.”

Tim's eyes widened as best they could, considering the damage that Scar had done to his facial features. He froze for a moment, frowning deeply. "You know that I can give him back his sight, but I can't risk turning them back to the way they were before." He gave her an apologetic look.

Riza nodded sadly. She had known that that was what he would say. The amount of energy involved with a kind of alchemy they knew nothing about, could kill both boys, considering how it was too risky just with trying to fix Ed's leg.

"I'm very sorry. I wish there was something more that I could do for them." Tim sighed, feeling awful about his own limitations. "I would do it if I could."

She just shook her head. “I know, Doctor Marcoh. Thank you. Giving a four-year-old boy who is scared and alone his sight back is one of the best things you can give just about anyone.” She looked over at the six-year-old blonde that was hugging her boss to him, the latter clinging to Ed’s neck. It was both adorable and heartbreaking all at the same time.

"Can I have the Lieutenant holding my hand?" Roy asked timidly, pressing himself closer to Ed as if asking might seem like he preferred her to him. "I just wanna have a lot of nice people with me… 'Cos… It's really scary."

Riza smiled sadly at the young boy, getting a very odd feeling about it all. Because if those two kids were getting their memories back, then she didn’t really want her boss to know what it was like to get hugged by her… 

...And then have a four-year-old Roy Mustang teasing her in a very inappropriate way because four-year-olds didn’t have much dignity or impulse control.

...Which meant that she was partially wondering that if, once he remembered a bit too much, that she’d have a four-year-old Roy Mustang on her lap as he suddenly squeezed her boobs mid-hug.

Roy wrung his hands. "I-I… If you don't wanna that's okay. I don't wanna make you do it…" He pressed his face into Ed, finding comfort in the smell of his new big brother.

Riza felt her stomach clench. Because right now, there was a blind four-year-old who was scared and just wanted to hold her hand at an extremely terrifying moment. He might still be her boss, but he was blind and depended on her just like he did as a grownup, but with a slightly different need of emotional support. When they didn’t know how to change them back, and the only people that had done so, were now dead… It might be like this for years. That her boss would need to grow up a second time. He had trusted her with his back, and when he remembered that part, then she couldn’t have him instinctively not trust her. Just because he was a young child in a scary world and the woman he had trusted to be his bodyguard...

...Didn’t want him because he had the instinctive emotional and physical reasoning belonging to a four-year-old… Meaning that people he liked, and thereby whom he wanted to get hugged by, needed to do so. Because otherwise they were untrustworthy. Otherwise his trust wasn’t reciprocated and that made him scared because they obviously didn’t love him back, then.

And so she sat down next to him, inwardly sighing. “No, it’s okay, sir. I’ll hold your hand,” she told him kindly, and then got an idea… Because the boy was ridiculously fond of hugs. She supposed that that had something to do with wanting to be protected when he couldn't see his surroundings, right after going through a traumatic experience. He was four and scared of the dark, basically. “Actually, when you think that it’s really scary, then I can make it a bit less scary for you. So I’ll just let both of you sit on my lap. So here we go.” She lifted the Colonel on to one of her thighs, Edward, being the little genius that he was, instantly climbing on to her free one. Then she put her arms around both of them.

...Sudden realisation struck her. Because she was jokingly known to be the Colonel’s nanny.

...And that probably wasn’t too far off now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please drop a review if you enjoyed!
> 
> Edit: (If anyone is confused I republished this because Ao3 was acting weird.)

**Author's Note:**

> Because Ed and Roy are sort of remembering things from their past, they seem to act older at times and are mentally tormented. So I hope that explains everything! 
> 
> I do have permission from the other author to post this here!


End file.
